Customers demand more of the products and services they use than ever before. They insist that the companies they deal with on a regular basis provide them greater and greater levels of information and access. These companies are configuring and operating more and more complex systems that are capable of delivering highly integrated services to those customers.
However, those same companies face a dilemma when their customers use the products of many other companies concurrent with their own. Inter-company cooperation and data sharing, though at opposition with that company's desire to ever increase the number of products a particular customer uses with them, has become commonplace. But a better manner of providing those customers access to those competing companies but still maintains a relationship between the customer and the company providing that access is needed.